Butterfly
by Silent Scribe
Summary: If you protect the little ones, they go on to protect even littler ones, don't they?


_A/N: We've been getting rain where I live, but I guess it's still too early in the season to be contemplating butterflies. Anyone know where I got the name Totoro?_ ;)

_I originally intended to have a longer story than this one-shot, but it was one of those moments where you think you're hatching a dragon and you end up hatching a...well, you know..._

**Butterfly**

The sky flashed and soon growled with the next roll of thunder as rain poured down, but Sesshomaru paid no mind to the folly of celestial ogres. Or his father's admonitions to hurry inside.

"Get over here!" Inu no Taisho barked for the umpteenth time. "You'll catch cold!"

The young daiyokai stood curled up and apparently bolted to the saturated earth. "But Pa," he called over his fur-cloaked shoulder. "You always said demons were superior beings an' that we'd never die or feel sickness or old age or any of that."

The Dog General nearly winced at being out-reasoned by what looked like a six-year-old. Slowly, one granite footstep at a time, he trudged over to see what demanded such rapt attention. A veritable mountain, Inu no Taisho tried not to loom too much over his own child; then he noticed Sesshomaru was holding out a leaf as if to shield something from the downpour.

"What's this?" He couldn't curb the chuckle in his voice. "You're wasting your time keeping a few raindrops off a…caterpillar?"

Sesshomaru cocked his head, studying the insignificance of his fuzzy friend for the first time. "Well, I dunno, it was here this morning…it's so small."

Not quite unconsciously, Inu no Taisho crouched down to his son's level. Since when did anyone's compassion extend to the insect world? Still, he knew his Sesshomaru wasn't going to speak anymore. Already the plea was being grafted in those enormous amber eyes. Only one option remained. "Do as you please, just get yourself inside," he commanded in tone like the thunder itself.

No need to contest a victory; scooping up his companion, Sesshomaru went to sleep with a new friend.

Scarcely three fingers long, somehow that tiny grub managed to consume its weight in vegetation everyday. Sesshomaru was sure of it, after all, he had to haul in the leaves.

"Not only that, Totoro," he spoke to the caterpillar, "but I also protect you from Mother and the servants who would sooner see you swept away. I s'pose if you were a silk worm they'd might see the purpose, but I'd never really had a pet I could keep indoors."

"Are you still talking to that bug?"

"His name's Totoro!" Sesshomaru proudly defended.

"Whatever." The Dog General kneaded his brow, muttering along the lines, "I wish that distraction would disappear."

Those words didn't ring in Sesshomaru's head until the next morning. "How could you?!"

Inu no Taisho barely glanced up from his latest treatise. "Could I what?"

"You made Totoro disappear!" Furiously tapped a little foot for an explanation.

"Can you still smell," he groaned to say the name, "Totoro?"

Sesshomaru inhaled rapidly. "A bit," he confessed.

"Then the bug's not dead. Go look for him."

Less than a breath later, Sesshomaru clamored back into the room cradling a delicate chrysalis. "Is this him?"

"It's a new stage, yes. The insect's 'growing up' as you might say." The Western Lord spared a moment to jab a claw in Totoro's direction. "That'll be his home for now. Better take care of it."

All too eagerly Sesshomaru took to his new post, mesmerized by the green and blue – slowly turning orange – speckled interior with every passing day.

Until the afternoon he came across only a dark, withered sheath. No longer was impending life housed inside.

"It died." The words grated in Sesshomaru's childish mouth.

"Are you so certain?" Inu no Taisho flashed his classic lopsided grin, on his topknot was perched a vermilion butterfly.

"Totoro!" Sesshomaru cried.

Gingerly, claws plucked the butterfly from its station. "I saw him crawl out this morning while you were still asleep."

Little hands now cupped a tiny treasure. "I'm so glad I got t' see you again!"

"I'm sure he is too. Now let him go."

Amber eyes widened. "Let go? To where?"

"Outside," came the simple answer.

"I can't do that! He might get eaten or squished! He'll get killed!"

"Do you think Totoro will be happy here? Out there are plenty of flowers abundant in nectar and soon he'll find other butterflies like himself."

"But then I can't be sure if he's safe." Sesshomaru's voice sounded unusually small in his own ears.

"Well," Inu no Taisho rose, "that butterfly's safety and freedom are in your hands. Heh, quite literally."

When his father was gone, Sesshomaru peaked between his fingers once more. Antennae waved back hopefully, bright wings fluttered.

When he slept, Sesshomaru prayed his choice be sound; but it hadn't. The next morning a crumbling, vermilion husk shuddered in mute testimony.

oOo

Rin wished her guardian of all this time would show more than mere complacency when she packed the last of her belongings to leave with her new husband. Somehow, in her fantasies, Sesshomaru looked more cut up than reclined disinterest.

"All right, I'm going. Thank you for everything, m'lord. Write to me." She lingered. "Okay, 'bye."

Several stirring heartbeats of silence passed until what may as well have been the breeze sighed.

"Live well, my little butterfly."

She stopped at the last words. They were utterly devoid of sarcasm, yet Rin had never heard such tenderness spoken by Sesshomaru.

_Butterfly?_

The young woman laughed, throwing back a wave.


End file.
